Locating spatial thinking in teaching practice

The focus of this editorial is on the potential of spatial thinking in teaching, both within spatially-enabled disciplines such as geography, environmental and earth science, and more broadly within the sciences and humanities. Although a persuasive argument has been made for the value of spatial thinking and GIS within a broader research context (e.g., Goodchild & Janelle, 2004 for the social sciences), the argument for the value of spatial thinking in teaching, particularly at a tertiary and higher level is considerably less in evidence. The dimensions of spatial thinking are probably familiar to most readers of this journal, in that they encompass elements of both low-level spatial cognition, and high-level spatial reasoning (Goodchild, 2004). Although the argument can be advanced that space (and spatial thinking) is what makes the discipline of geography and geographic knowledge distinct (for example Golledge, 2002), we do not wish to imply that geography is the !home" of spatial thinking. Rather we simply acknowledge that it is the discipline of geography with whom such concepts are most closely associated, for example through the presence of GIS and GIScience. When considering GIS in the context of education, a useful distinction is often made (e.g., Sui, 1995) between teaching about GIS and teaching with GIS. The first is common within Geography and Geomatics programmes at University level, while the focus of the second is on how GIS, as an enabling technology, facilitates learning on the broader stage; this includes different parts of geography as well as other areas of the sciences and humanities. Spatial thinking is undoubtedly involved in both, but is perhaps more explicit in the former and implicit in the latter. Arguably though, it is through the latter that GIS may have a more wide reaching impact. The much anticipated US National Research Council report !Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K-12 Curriculum" due to be published late in 2004 will provide a more definitive treatment of the importance of GIS within secondary education in the US. The US has also been the focus for new initiatives that have attempted to integrate spatial thinking and GIS more broadly within teaching, for example the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded initiative !Centre for